


Before I Go

by wonderslayer



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-21 22:38:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17651201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderslayer/pseuds/wonderslayer
Summary: S5E22. Buffy says goodbye.





	Before I Go

This is it. No turning back. The mission: save Dawn, or die trying.

So Giles wasn’t entirely on board. Naturally. His first priority was the world, not one girl. Maybe it should be Buffy’s, too. She was the Slayer after all. Chosen to save the world, to make the sacrifices necessary for the world to keep on spinning.

But Buffy had never been wired that way. Sacrificing the one for the whole didn’t seem fair. Wasn’t fair. Especially when that one was innocent, like Dawn.

So she would do what she had to do to save the world  _ and _ save Dawn.

She’d done it before. Why did this feel different? Because Glory was a God? Maybe.

Because she was losing everything she fought for in this world? Her mother, gone. Riley, gone. Angel, out of reach. Dawn. All alone.

Maybe Spike was right. Her ties to earth were falling away.

But she still had her friends, right? Except they had their own paths to follow. Giles longed for England. He didn’t say anything, but she knew. Xander was happy with Anya, big man on the construction site. And Willow had Tara.

“Buffy? Are you...okay?”

This is it. No turning back.

Buffy gathered up the bundle of clothes and turned. “Is the robot ready?”

Willow nodded. “Just about.”

“Good. When you boot her up, tell her to change into these,” she ordered, passing over the folded pile.

“Right. Okay.” She hovered in the doorway, but whatever she might’ve said was lost in a sigh.

This is  _ it _ . There are no other chances.

“Will,” Buffy called, before she could think on it another second.

She wheeled, almost smiling. “Yeah?”

“Listen. You know that if it were you - ”

“You don’t have to explain why you want to save your sister, Buffy.” Willow clasped her arm in solidarity, nodding. “Or that you’d do the same for any of the rest of us. We know that. I know that.”

Willow always understood.

Buffy nodded. “Okay. Hey, I know things haven’t been the same for a while. Between us.”

“What do you mean?” Her bottom lip puckered, like she was hurt by the notion.

Come on, Will. Ever since Tara…

_ We used to be inseparable. _

“I want you to know that I love Tara. I think she’s great, and you two are great together. And I hope that you get her back and that you live a long, happy, healthy life together.”

Willow gleamed at her. “Buffy…”

“I want you to know that before I do this.”

“Do what?”

Buffy kissed her. The touch of Willow’s lips. They made the world fall apart and she didn’t even need a key to do it. They just floated in a space all their own. Willow was floating with her. She felt the clothes tumble onto her feet, and the hair along the back of her neck prickled to a stand as Willow’s hands coasted to her shoulders, bracing. Gripping her shirt in fistfuls, gathering at threads of a life that could have been theirs if…

“I love you.”

She whispered it against Willow, breathed it into her. The last tie, let go.

There was wetness on her cheeks and it wasn’t her own.

“Buffy.”

_ Goodbye, my Willow. _

She drew back and left her stumbling. “I’m gonna get warmed up. Let me know when the bot’s ready to go.”

For a few moments, there was nothing but Buffy’s fists against the pommel horse.

“Right. O-okay…”

Willow scrambled to pick up the pieces, the clothing strewn by their feet, and then she was gone.

Buffy breathed. This is it.


End file.
